The “Normal” Woman Who Kills: Representations of Women’s Intimate Partner Homicide

Abstract

Research suggests that the representation of women’s lethal violence relies on stock narratives that deny women’s femininity or neutralize their culpability. I test those claims by studying media coverage of female-perpetrated intimate partner homicides in Toronto, Canada, from 1975 to 1999. I find that the vast majority of these homicides received little or no media coverage, which I attribute to the circumstances surrounding “normal” killings and the characteristics of the offenders and victims involved in them. “Normal” homicides do not necessarily disrupt or challenge our understanding of femininity or violence, making them less newsworthy or in need of explanation.